


Patient #15-C-10

by DreamWings231



Category: The Bright Sessions (Podcast), Time Bombs (Podcast), Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 17:35:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17370401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamWings231/pseuds/DreamWings231
Summary: Session 1 with Tatiana Sobrero, an unexpected walk-in and implied to never come back.Much like an old friend, she saw the advertisement for the 'strange and unusual' and thought it was perfect for her.Plus, plans for New Year's Eve, a fake name if you wish, and a split personality named Bob.





	Patient #15-C-10

**Author's Note:**

> I got inspired by that other Time Bombs/Wolf 359 post-canon fic. I just hit the ground running.

When Joan took a small detour to her main office to collect her stash of expensive wine, she didn’t expect someone to knock on the door the moment she stepped in. Honestly, she jumped, key in hand ready to defend herself from anyone as dangerous as Damien.

Instead standing right outside the half open door is a tall woman, her knuckles still against the door and staring back at Joan with the same wide eyed surprise.

She slowly raised both her hands in surrender but her tall stature and large biceps point the obvious on who can over power the other. The woman schools the tension out of her face and in a soft and careful tone says, “Hi, is this the therapy for the strange and unusual?”

“Oh, yes it is,” Joan, key still in hand, lets the woman enter the room. “I wasn’t expecting anyone today.”

“Uh yeah, my bad,” she said and has the decency to look a little bit embarrassed but there’s more regret and hesitance in her voice. “I thought I’d at least ask for a walk-in before I psych myself out.” Before Joan could prompt for more of an explanation, the woman blurted, “I really don’t want therapy but after everything that happened to me, I know I need it. And like, your ad said ‘strange and unusual’ and that is just perfect for me!”

Jovial cheer aside, there’s a pain and darkness in her eyes. Joan knows there’s a big story there.

Like any good therapist Joan pockets her key and holds out her hand, “If so then I am Dr. Bright. We can do a quick session now before you ‘psyched’ out if you want.”

Shaking hands, the woman says, “I’m Tatiana Sobrero and yeah, now wouldn’t be a bad time.”

Joan got her office ready, asked Tatiana if she minded to be recorded, she froze up and said ‘hard pass’ and set the recorder aside.

“I think this may be one time thing,” Tatiana said, observing the room like it was a second nature to know her surroundings and find all the threats.

“Are you just visiting town?”

Nodding, she quirked up her lips into a smirk, “I’m doing an interview and tagging along with a bomb squad tonight.”

That’s not quite the strange or unusual Joan expected. “On New Year’s Eve?” That is the main reason why she’s even here right now, to bring back the wine to celebrate with Sam.

Tatiana shrugged, “One of them is a, um, an acquaintance of mine. Just gonna check up on him.”

“I see. Is shadowing a bomb squad part of the reason why you think you need therapy?”

“No but,” Tatiana hesitated with a laugh, “yeah let’s just get into how strange and unusual I am.” She rubbed her palms on her knees and looks to Joan with the most focused eyes, “A very long story short, I got some sort of split personality that gave me incredible healing recovery. They’re name is Bob.”

“Bob,” Joan repeated neutrally. She let herself smile only after Tatiana grinned.

“I didn’t name them.” There’s a hint of sadness as Tatiana explained, “My friend did.”

“So, tell me about Bob and your healing abilities.”

Tatiana slowly chooses her words, “I got serious hurt and almost died but suddenly I popped right back up with my brain rebooting. I was reliving an old memory.” She took a deep breath to refocus, “And when I was A-Okay, Bob came out of nowhere. They only took over me a handful of times.” She even counted on her fingers, “The first time was to, I don’t know, make their selves known and talk to my friend. Actually that’s it. All of their… surfacing was only to my friend.”

“Why do you think that? Is this friend important to you or to Bob?” Joan took in how very hesitant Tatiana is with explaining her story. It was better to be patience, there’s a lot of distrust radiating off of her. She’s more willing to talk about the split personality rather than further explain her healing capabilities. It’s probably for the best since she has to risk her life for it to kick in.

Finally Tatiana pursed an answer with a soft smile and bafflement, “Music, Bob liked the music from my friend’s radio. And they choose my friend to learn from. At one point, my friend,” again there was hesitance.

“You can say a fake name if you wish,” Joan offered, sensing a protective nature from her.

She tilted her head, side to side, debating for only three seconds and decided, “Zach.”

“Zach,” she repeated, “He caught Bob’s attention.”

“Right, yes, at one point Zach got the bright,” Joan instantly noticed a slight giggle from Tatiana on her pun, “idea to intentionally hurt himself to summon up Bob.” There’s a hard edge to her voice, nostrils flaring. “It worked and Bob got super mad at him. Then when I was back in control, I was super, _super_ mad at him.”

She calmed down, wilted more like it, and stared off into space.

Joan asked, “Does Zach need therapy?”

A cold laugh is her response, “Yeah probably because not too long ago, Zach got hurt really bad, like amnesia bad. Around the same time, Bob got hurt too and ever since then, I thought Bob was really gone, but nope.”

“Bob came back to check on Zach to see for their selves,” Joan guessed correctly.

“It was a long while between Zach getting help and me visiting him in person. The moment I stepped into the room, Bob took over. It was brief. All Bob said was ‘You don’t remember me?’ and ‘I’m sadden and sorry’.”

While Tatiana was busy staring at her hands, Joan had to ask some questions.

“How are you able to differentiate yourself and Bob?”

“Um, it’s not an out of body or mind experience, I’m still there. Like I’m sudden in a passenger seat and I can only observe Bob driving my body.”

It wasn’t the same reasons but it was the same metaphor Sam used to describe Mark time traveling them. Joan can work with this.

“Are you unable to feel what Bob’s feeling?”

Biting her lip, Tatiana took her time to really think. “Vaguely but it was always my own emotions. Like Bob was reading me and was learning my emotions to understand that they were also sad. Also, I’m only able feel them when they make their presence known.”

“Learning something appears to be Bob’s main trigger, aside from Zach. Has Bob ever appeared before you met Zach or at least before your adulthood?”

Tatiana blinked and clicked her tongue, “That is something I literally cannot answer. But to the best of my understanding, they genuinely care about him.”

“And how is he doing?”

“Eh,” she began, “possibly has an identity crisis with the whole amnesia thing and him now being a completely different person. Oh right!” Tatiana clapped her hands happily, “The look on everyone’s faces when Bob came back was hilarious. Especially with Doug since he didn’t know that my hands and eyes glow right before Bob takes over.”

Her laugher filled Joan’s office and Joan ignored Tatiana’s small slip up.

So far keeping this session off the record has been a great idea. Who knows what the AM would do with someone with practically resurrecting self-healing along with glowing body parts and a curious split personality.

Once her giddiness died down Joan had one last thing to say, “I don’t think you’re here for advice to coexist with Bob. From the sounds of it, they’re the least of your problems. You implied a lot of traumatic experiences involving friends. For you, peaceful times equal unguarded people and so you’re checking up on your friends.” Tatiana has a harden expression, not angry but more annoyed and impressed by Joan. “When Bob came out of dormancy and took control, you felt like the past is going to repeat.”

“All the disasters that my friends and I faced,” Tatiana said lowly, sad and, as she hugged her arms, probably scared, “it was all because some people wanted to learn from Bob.”

“Learn what?” Tatiana pressed her lips together and shrugged again. Joan asked carefully. “Bob doesn’t have your memories?”

“Oh they do,” she said casually, annoyed. “It’s just that they have their own ways of thinking, beyond my comprehension but did their best to teach it to,” she clicked her tongue, “Zach.”

Joan rubbed her chin, “The last time Bob came, when checking on Zach, were they sad about him forgetting their lessons?”

“I think, well, I know the information was important,” she admitted, “but that wasn’t their priority when they checked in. They probably learned from my emotions to feel grief over the Zach they met.”

If she just first started this session with just talking about her atypical healing abilities and near death experiences, Joan may had have a better understanding.

Instead, the more Tatiana explains about Bob, the less Joan is sure. The split personality having its own identity, yes that makes sense, having certain information blocked from Tatiana, yes that too, but her knowing that none of the information originated from Tatiana is a lot more puzzling.

Bob sounded a lot like an entity rather than a personality disorder.

Joan stopped that train of thought, the less she knew, the less aware the AM will be of Tatiana Sobrero.

“Tatiana, there will be things out of your control that you can’t fault yourself. Also being paranoid about the future can be one of those things.” It looked like she hit the nail as Tatiana nodded. “As for being prepared, checking with your friends is a good plan to ease your mind.” Joan remembered and admitted, “Although, I am a bit wary about your bomb squad friend.”

That got a proud smile from her patient, “I’m not.” She finally relaxed her shoulders, “I think I got everything I need from this. Thanks Dr. Bright.”

A glance from the clock told them that the sun starting to sink, turning blue skies to orange and pink. One last handshake and a promise to be careful had Tatiana Sobrero walking out the door.

As for Joan, she grabbed her wine from under the office desk and headed out, ready for the New Year.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
